Creating PDF Links To Page Numbers

Creating Links to Page Numbers

Introduction

The tutorial shows how to automatically create PDF links to text that refer to page numbers such as "see page 5", "see pages 2-4" or "15", "12-14" and etc. This functionality is provided by the AutoBookmark™ plug-in for the Adobe® Acrobat®. There are multiple automated methods available:

Link "Page N" Text to Nth Page
Link Numbers to Corresponding Pages
Link Table of Contents To Pages

If you need to cover custom linking scenarios or link lists of page references, then see the "Linking Complex Page References" tutorial that explains how to use linking by text search method.

These operations are also available in the Action Wizard (Acrobat's batch processing tool) and can be used for automating of document processing workflows.

Prerequisites

You need a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® along with the AutoBookmark™ plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. You can download trial versions of both the Adobe® Acrobat® and the AutoBookmark™ plug-in.

Linking "Page N" Text to Nth Page: The sofware automatically creates links to "page N" text strings that point to corresponding page numbers. Page links are not created if a page number is outside of the valid page range for the current PDF document. Links are created for the text strings such as: "page 23", "pages 23-32", "pages 23, 34, 55" and etc.
Step 1 - Open a PDF Document: Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and open a PDF document using "File > Open…" from the main menu.
Step 2 - Open The "Link "Page N" Text to Nth Page" Dialog: Select "Plug-Ins > Links > Generate Links > Link "Page N" Text to Nth Page..." to open the "Link "Page N" Text to Nth Page" dialog.
Step 3 - Specify Page Offset (Optional): Optionally, specify page offset in the "Link "Page N" Text To Nth Page" dialog. Page offset represents a difference between the physical page numbers in the PDF document (1,2,3..) and "printed" page numbers. For example, "See page 5" text may refer to a page that is actually page 7 in the current document. Use page offset 2 (7 - 5 = 2) to accomodate this difference. The offset can be positive or negative.
Step 4 - Specify Font Filter (Optional): Click "Font Filter..." to limit text search to a specific font name and/or size.; Specify font style parameters by entering font name and/or font size in the "Select Font Filter" dialog. Click "Set Font Attributes From Selected Text" to use font style from the currently selected text. Click "OK" once done.
Step 5 - Specify Processing Page Range (Optional): Click "Edit Page Range…" to limit link generation only to a specific range of pages.; Select desired processing page range: all pages, current page or a page range. Click "OK" once done.
Step 6 - Specify Page Area (Optional): Press the "Edit Page Area..." button to limit text search to a specific page area. All text outside of the specified area will be ignored.; Check the "Process text located only in the following area" box. Click "Select Page Area From Sample Page…".; Draw a box on the sample page. Only text within this area will be processed (on each page).
Step 7 - Specify Link Appearance (Optional): Press the "Edit Appearance..." button to specify desired visual appearance of the resulting links.; Select a link type: visible or invisible rectangle. Select "Invisible Rectangle" if you don’t want users to see the link in the PDF. An invisible link is useful if the link is over an image. Note that the "Line Thickness", "Line Style" and "Color" options are not available if "Invisible Rectangle" is selected.; Select a highlight style: none, invert, outline or inset.; Select a line thickness: thin, medium or thick.; Select a line style: solid, dashed or underline.; Select a color for the link using the "Color" menu. The color is used only for drawing the link outline. Check the "Change underlying text color to" box and select a desired color from the pull-down menu. Click "OK" to close the dialog.
Step 8 - Start Processing: Click "OK" to start link generation process.; The final dialog will show the total number of links created. Click "OK" to close the dialog.
Step 9 - Inspect the Results: The sofware automatically creates links to "page N" text strings that point to corresponding page numbers. For example, the "page 5" text is linked to the page 5 and "pages 6-11" text is linked to the page 6.
How To Link Numbers to Corresponding Pages: The sofware automatically creates links to all numbers in the document that point to the corresponding pages. Page links are not created if a number is outside of the valid page range for the current document. Note that page links are not created for numbers that are followed by units or other words that indicate that a number is not refering to a page. For example: day, month, minute, hour, mile, km, meter, mm, cm, inch, item. Page links are not created for numbers that are preceded by a name of the month. For example: Mar or March, May, June and etc. No links will be added to the following text: 2 hours, 23 mm, 16 miles, 25 km, March 23, July 4, 100 items, 25", and etc.
Step 1 - Open A PDF Document: Start the Adobe® Acrobat® application and open a PDF document using "File > Open…" from the main menu.
Step 2 - Open The "Link Numbers To Corresponding Pages" Dialog: Select "Plug-Ins > Links > Generate Links > Link Numbers To Corresponding Pages..." to open the "Link Numbers To Corresponding Pages" dialog.
Step 3 - Specify Page Number Format (Optional): The "Link Numbers To Corresponding Pages" dialog will appear. Click here to skip optional steps in order to start linking numbers to corresponding pages in the whole PDF document without link appearance specification.; Optionally, specify page number format: numeric only (1,2,3...), numeric with optional letters (1,2,3f,4a...) or numeric without restrictions.
Step 4 - Specify Page Offset And Font Filter (Optional): Specify page offset that is a difference between the physical page numbers in the PDF document and printed page numbers. It can be positive or negative.; Click "Font Filter..." to limit text search to a specific font name and/or size.; Specify font style parameters by entering font name and/or font size in the "Select Font Filter" dialog. Optionally, click "Set Font Attributes From Selected Text" to use font style from selected in the PDF document text. Click "OK" once done.
Step 5 - Specify Processing Page Range (Optional): Click "Edit Page Range…" to specify processing page range.; Select desired processing page range: all pages, current page or specified pages. Click "OK" once done.
Step 6 - Specify Page Area (Optional): Press the "Edit Page Area..." button to specify an area on the page to perform a text search. All text outside of the specified area will be ignored.; Check the "Process text located only in the following area" box. Click "Select Page Area From Sample Page…".; Draw a rectangle around an area on the sample page. Only text within this area will be processed (on each page).
Step 7 - Specify Link Appearance (Optionally): Press the "Edit Appearance..." button to specify desired visual appearance of the resulting links.; Select a link type: visible or invisible rectangle. Select "Invisible Rectangle" if you don’t want users to see the link in the PDF. An invisible link is useful if the link is over an image. Note that the "Line Thickness", "Line Style" and "Color" options are not available if "Invisible Rectangle" is selected.; Select a highlight style: none, invert, outline or inset.; Select a line thickness: thin, medium or thick.; Select a line style: solid, dashed or underline.; Select a color for the link using the "Color" menu. The color is used only for drawing the link outline. Check the "Change underlying text color to" box and select a desired color from the pull-down menu. Click "OK" to close the dialog.
Step 8 - Start Processing: Click "OK" to start linking numbers to the corresponding pages.; The dialog will show the total number of links created. Click "OK" to close the dialog.
Step 9 - Inspect the Results: The sofware automatically creates links to all numbers in the document that point to the corresponding page numbers. Note that no links are added to the following strings: 2 hours, 100 items and etc.; If it is necessary to create links to page numbers in more complex scenarios, then you use "Plug-ins > Links > Generate Links >Generate Links By Text Search" menu.; You can find a list of other step-by-step bookmarking tutorials here: http://www.evermap.com/abm_bm_summary.asp#tutorials.